scholarly journals Herbal Medicines in African Traditional Medicine

Author(s):  
Ezekwesili-Ofili Josephine Ozioma ◽  
Okaka Antoinette Nwamaka Chinwe
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-57
Author(s):  
James Flowers

Abstract This article reveals an important, yet hidden, Korean response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that goes beyond the actions of the state. It focuses on the Korean medicine doctors who were excluded from any government-led public health or treatment plans for COVID-19. Bypassing the state, they used telehealth to provide herbal medicines to 20 percent of COVID-19 patients in South Korea. Traditional medicine doctors volunteered their services and financial resources to fill a gap in COVID-19 care. Most observers attribute Korean success in controlling COVID-19 to the leadership of the technocratic state with buy-in from the population. However, the case of Korea offers an example of bottom-up healthcare in a community where people chose their own native cultural resources and helps to explain how doctors were able to take the initiative to autonomously work with people in the community to help to stop the otherwise rapid transmission of the virus.


Author(s):  
Saleh Alghamdi

Objectives: The use of herbal medicines as non-conventional treatment is popular, especially in developing countries where people suffering from chronic diseases as diabetes mellitus are more likely to use herbal medicines along with conventional medicines. However, their simultaneous use may concur serious drug interactions and may therefore result in a serious outcome. The present study was designed to identify the most commonly used herbal medicines and conventional anti-diabetic medications among Saudi population. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was developed and piloted.Data were retrieved and manually entered in Excel 2016. Frequencies and percentages were utilized to perform descriptive analysis. The study was approved by the Scientific and Research Committee of the main hospital taking part in the study. Results: A total of 347 responses were recorded (69.4% response rate). 54% of participants were male, 53% were between the age of 41 and 64 years, and 35.5% had no formal education. Black tea, Peppermint, ginger, green tea, olive oil, and black seed were among the frequently mentioned herbal medicines. Black tea was used by the majority of patients (80%) while peppermint and ginger were used by more than half of patients, i.e., (56.5%) and (52.7%) respectively. Least common herb used by patients was Artemisia species (2.8%). A majority of patients (53.4%) used traditional medicine at least once daily, and 83% used traditional medicine without their physician's prescription. Conclusion: Concomitant use of herbal and conventional anti-diabetic medication was a common practice among patients in Saudi Arabia, therefore, pharmacists-led educational programs should target both prescribers and general public about the possible interactions/risks of herbal medicines.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Nwokeke Chinyere Celine ◽  
Igwillo Ugochukwu Clifford

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 126-133
Author(s):  
OM Awoniran ◽  
HA Soriyan ◽  
AA Elujoba

This study developed, implemented and evaluated a framework for the means of knowledge capture in African traditional medicine (ATM) practice. This was with a view to enhancing the preservation of knowledge and hence the continual exploitation of African traditional healing techniques in malaria therapy. The methodology adopted involved knowledge elicitation by means of an interview scheme administered on a number of African traditional medicine practitioners (ATMPs) in Ile-Ife and its environs. The data taken from the practitioners were analyzed using the general architecture for text engineering (GATE) software. The resulting information was structured and the knowledge based system (KBS) was implemented using Javascript and PHP programming language. Sample cases of malaria were posted to the KBS for diagnosis and treatment of malaria disease. Also, fifteen ATMPs were required to provide diagnosis and therapies for the same cases of malaria in groups of five. The output from the KBS and ATMPs were then tested for agreement using Fleiss’ Kappa qualitative analysis. The diagnosis and therapy agreement between the groups of ATMPs and the KBS gave an average kappa-measure of 0.854 which indicates an almost perfect agreement between the KBS and the ATMPs. Therefore, the framework can be said to be complete for knowledge capture of malaria. In conclusion, knowledge in ATM practice could be structured, formalized and implemented as found in this work. This could be useful for capturing, storing and preserving knowledge in the domain of African traditional medicine practice.Keywords: African Traditional Medicine, General Architecture For Text Engineering, Knowledge Based System


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